Moderation : Duane W.H. Arnold, PhD

Moderation

“Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.”

Moderation used to be considered a virtue.  More recently, it seems, at best, to be an indication of weakness or, at worst, a vice.  In this context, however, being moderate is seen as a positive attribute of the Christian life.  It is very much about being reasonable, that is, not going to extremes on one side of an issue or another.  It is the idea that Christians are not to be seen as easily angered or foolish, but rather as reasonable, wise people who can handle difficulties and disagreements with some degree of maturity. In context, Paul is specifically asking two Christian women, Euodia and Syntyche, to settle some dispute that has arisen, while others in the church are encouraged to be reasonable. Rather than forcing binary choices in which everyone takes a side, he is encouraging moderation.

As someone who comes out of the Anglican tradition, I have always found the idea of being moderate appealing.  After all, the Anglican tradition is known as the via media, or the middle way.  Originally seen as the middle way between Wittenberg and Geneva, the meaning of the term morphed through the centuries to an understanding of Anglicanism as bridging the gap between Protestantism and the Roman Catholic Church.  Today, however, as a sense of moderation is increasingly rare in Anglicanism, it has splintered and devolved into competing factions of liberals and conservatives who shout over each other, but seldom speak with or to each other.  Basically, the factions do not wish to speak to people who do not agree with their point of view. Moreover, as moderation has largely disappeared from the scene, Anglicanism has lost much of its voice with regard to global Christianity, not to mention those outside the Church. Such a result is only to be expected.

This very sad situation, however, is not limited to the Anglican communion.  The recent developments in the United Methodist Church and the Southern Baptist Convention, while involving different issues, will, it seems, result in a similar outcome.  Even in the Roman Catholic Church, traditionalists and progressives are drawing battle lines.  It seems that few faith communities are exempt from what is taking place.  All of this, of course, mirrors what is taking place in politics worldwide, but on a smaller scale.  As we are pushed to extremes, there is less and less middle ground to be seen.

I wonder, when did we stop listening to each other?

I have always been a moderate in terms of theology.  While I don’t hold to inerrancy, I have a very high view of Scripture.  While I use modern linguistic and critical tools in the study of the Bible, I also delve into the original languages and consult early patristic sources to assist in interpretation.  The result is to be called a “liberal” by the fundamentalists and to be called a “conservative” by modern Biblical critics. Because I value (and take seriously) the Fathers of the Church, the medieval scholastics and the works of the Reformers (both Protestant and Catholic), I am considered a “traditionalist”.   Likewise, because I find much to be commended in the works of Karl Barth, Hans Kung, Karl Rahner and Leonard Boff, I am considered a “progressive”.  It seems that we have reached the point at which even learning must carry a label to identify us as belonging to one side or another.   To be in the “moderate middle”, trying to listen to all sides, is to be alone… and, all too often, to be a target.

I think we stop listening to each other when we see moderation as weakness, rather than perceiving it as a strength.  We stop listening to each other when we believe that there is no value in hearing what the “other side” has to say.  Now, we are not required by any means to accept or subscribe to all that we might hear, but in failing to listen we run the risk of existing within an echo chamber of our own devising.  Moreover, as we have seen in so many splintering faith communities, even within those echo chambers yet more divisions will arise, more walls will be built and more “purity tests” will be exacted.

Maybe it is time to start listening to each other again.

“Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.” 

There’s plenty of room in the middle.

Duane W.H. Arnold, PhD

The Project